Automatic paper-feeder.



J. HREN.

AUTOMATIG PAPER FEEDER.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.19, 190s.

. Patented Nov. 9, 1909.

llllL INVENTOR Jase 5% 1 ran BY WITNESSES:

ATTORNEY v J. HREN, AUTOMATIC PAPER EEEDER.

' APPLIOATIIOII PILIFD DE'I]. 19, 190B. 939,260.

Patented Nov. 9, 1909.

4 SHEETS-SHEET a.

l l L 4 I I I TI r I I I I I I I I I I I INVENTOR Jbsejfi Hren BY IWITNESSES:

ATTORNEY J. HREN.

AUTOMATIC PAPER FEEDER.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.19, 1908.

939,260. Patented Ndv. 9, 1909.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

E I lylllllll INVENTOR Bye E5 Hren BY W a /DLW% ATTORNEY JOSEPHHREN, OFBROOKLYN, NEW YORK.,

AUTOMATIC PAPER-FEEDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented .Nov.'9, 1909 Application filed December 19, 1908. Serial No.468,334.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH HREN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Brooklyn, in the county ofKings and State of New .York, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Automatic Paper-Feeders, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an automatic paper feeder and one of thefeatures .of the invention consists in means by which excessive feed ofpaper or .sheetsis automatically arrested.

Another feature of the invention resides in means for setting a suctiontube so that it will lift a sheet and release the same to be carriedoff.

Other features of the invention are set forth in the followingspecification and claims and illustrated in the annexed drawing in whichFigure 1 shows a plan view of a paper feeder embodyin this invention. F12 shows a view of ig. 1 looking from the left. Fig. 3 shows a View ofFig. 1 lookin from the right. Fig. 4 is a section along t e line as mFig. 1. Flg. 5 shows a setting chain for the suction tube with adjacentparts. Fig. 6 is a section along line y 3 Fig. 5. Fig. 7 1s, a detailview of part of a suction tube with mouth portion. ,8 is a detail viewof 1 one of the friction ocks to effect engagement between one of thesprockets and the traveling sleeve.

In this drawing the automatic paper feeder is shown comprising a frameor support a with a table 6 adapted to support a pile of sheets 0. Thistable can be lifted by a screw stem (2 having miter gear connection 6with a. ratchet wheel f. The ratchet is actuated by a pawl g Fi 2pivoted on pawl arm h actuated by a lin i and crank pin k on rotatingshaft m. When the pile o rises beyond a certain level the finger 0 onlever p swings the latter with itsfulcrumrod g car rying an intermediatelever r. A stop or catch finger s is pivoted at t and the free end ofthis stop 8 rests on the lever 1' or in a channeled or sunken portion oflever r so as not to normally project above the .top edge of lever 1'. Apawl 2 on pawl arm It can then slide back and forth on the lever r asthe pawl arm 72. is swung back and forth by link 1'. When however thelever r is raised by the rising sheet pile swinging up the lever ,p thefinger s is tilted upward to project its free end above the face oflever re The pawl or stop finger 2 now swinging against the stop 8 willarrest the pawl .arm with pawl g. The pawl arm is loosely connected tolink z so that the link can move when the pawl arm is arrested. Apin andslot connection can servefor'loosely connecting the link and pawl arm.As the sheet pile diminishes the lever p-with intermediate lever 1-sinks to allow finger s to drop clear of the stop 2 when the pawl 9 canthen be in to actuate wheel f to raise the sheet ital 1c. The arm hif'left'free :will swing .or oscillate by its weight and if in theposition of the parts shown in Fig.2 the link 5 moves to the right itwill pull arm 11. to the right, and as the link '71 returns the arm Itwill oscillate back again unless the swing of arm 72, to the leftis'arrested by finger 2 striking stop .8.

The sheetson the table are kept separated by a blast or blow nozzle 3and the top sheet is lifted off the pile by a suction mouth piece 4resting on the inner face of a perforated rim forming part of wheel 5rotating with or on the shaft m. 'The sheet adhering to the rim of wheel5 is carried forward to be taken off by wheel 6 between which and pulley7 the 'sheet is carried off. The mouth piece ,4 connects with a .suctiontube 8 which is set to open and closed position for the sheet to bedrawn by mouth piece 4 to the rim of wheel 5 and then to be dropped bycutting off the suction. The rotation or rather oscillation of thissuction tube 8 to 0 en and closed position is effected automatica ly bymeans to be presently .described.

,An endless chain 9 .is led over guide pulleys or sprockets 10 one ofwhich is actuated by suitable gear connection with main shaft m. andsaid chain also engages the sprocket l1 frictionally surrounding aflanged and screwthreaded sleeve 12 Fig. '6. This sleeve has a screwthread connection with tube 8 so thatvby being turned the sleeve can bescrewed to and from a collor '13 fast on tube 8. Two such collars areshown on the tube 8 one on each side of the riser or frame part a inwhich the tube 8 can oscillate and which collars prevent longitudinalmovement of the oscillatory .tube '8. The frictional enga ement betweenthe sprocket 11 and thremid traveling sleeve'12 is effected by suitablemeans such as blocks 14 Fi 5. The blocks 14 may be plain i eces or weedes of wood which, when being f rrvnn or forced in between the sleeve 12.and

sprocket 11, will cause these parts to turn with'more or less frictionwith respect to one another. As shown in Fig. 8 the friction piece 14may consist of a somewhat curved or bent piece of spring metal 1 1 whichwhen placed between the sleeve and the sprocket roduces the necessaryfriction. The flange 0 sleeve or bushing 12 has shoulders 16 andwheneither of these shoulders is engaged by pawl 17 the sleeve cannot turnand the chain 9 keeps rotating idly on the sleeve. When however thechain by one of its lugs 18 engaging or tapping lug 19 on pawl 17 liftsthe pawl clear of a shoulder 16 the friction of the rotating sprocket 11rotates the sleeve 12 to move the latter on the tube 8 toward theadjacent collar 13. The sprocket or its hub part projects somewhatbeyond the sleeve 12 at the side facing the collar 13 and as thesprocket is carried to contact with the collar the rotation of thesprocket is for the moment imparted to the tube. The sprocket 11, thesleeve 12 and tube'8 now turn together until a shoulder on the flangeofsleeve 12 is engaged by pawl 17 when the rotation of sleeve 12 isarrested but the rotation of tube 8 continues momentarily ,whilesprocket 11 remains for an instant in frictional contact or jammedagainst collar 13. As by this rotation of the tube the screw sleeve 12with sprocket 11 is screwed away from collar 13 the rotation of the tubeimmediately stops and the pawl 17 rengaging the sleeve 12 or a shoulder16 on the sleeve will againarrest its rotation for -the sprocket 11 torotate idly on the sleeve.

Two shoulders 16 are shown on the flange of sleeve 12 and as the pawlreleases one shoulder and engages the second the result is a half turnof tube 8 to cut off or close the suction through mouth piece 41whereupon the pawl 17 releasing the second shoulder 16 and rengaging thefirst shoulder allows tube.

8 to be set back to reestablish suction through mouth piece 4. Thelateral motion of the disk 16 or its motion back and forth in a line atright angles to the plane of the pawl is so slight and the pawl 17 is ofsuch width that the pawl does not lose its engagement with the disk 16.In other words by such momentary rotation the tube 8 is each time glvena partial or half turn for its orifice 20 to be brought first out ofregister with suction mouth 4 to momentarily cut off the suction throughthe mouth and allow a sheet to drop 0E the wheel 15 and then toreestablish the suction for a following sheet to be lifted or taken upto this wheel.

In Fig. 7 a number of orifices 20 are shown in tube 8 and by setting amouth piece 4 to one orifice or another and closing up the remaininorifices by a slidablesleeve or rubber tu e 21 the mouth piece 4 can beset for sheets of varying widths.

To accommodate sheets of varying lengths the chain 9 canbe lengthenedand a slotted bearing piece 22 allows the lower pulley or sprocket 10 tobe set up or down to accommodate varying lengths of chain.

The suction of tube 8 is established by a hose or flexible tube 23extending to pump 24. The suction hose 23 connects with the inlet mouthof pump 24 while the blast hose 3 connected to the outlet of the pumpwill establish the blast for separating the sheets. The sheets or theirleading edges can be kept from blowing up too high'under the action ofblast 3'by an overhanging disk or plate 25 carried by arm 26' which canbe con;;

nectedor carried by a suitable cross piece of the frame. Saidoverhanging plate 25 also prevents the blast from assing upward andcompels the same to b ow in between the sheets.

The main shaft m can be actuated in any suitable way and can be providedwith the usual fast and loose pulleys for starting and stopping.

The sheet table b can be set by hand to any desired level when startingthe machine. On the shaft of ratchet wheel 7 is a hand crank 27 whichhas a spring pressed finger 28 tending normally to snap into engagementwith the ratchet f. ThlS finger carries a button 29 with stem 30 andwhen the stem rests against the side of the crank 27 it holds the finger28 retracted out of engagement with ratchet f. When however the button29 is turned to allow stem 30 to enter a recess 31 in the sideof thecrank 27 the spring pressed finger 28 can pass into engagement withratchet f to lock the ratchet and crank handle to one another and enablethe screw stem d to be rotated for setting the sheet table to anydesired level.

It has been mentioned that the suction tube 8 or its suction isinterrupted at intervals but the blast through tube 3 is continuous ornever shut off. The pump has the links 32 of its pistons so geared orconnected to fly wheel 33 that when in motion one of the pistons alwaysexpels air through out- 1 which can be removed or inserted as requiredby sheets of varying lengths.

I 2. In a machine of the class described a suction tube adapted. to beset into open and closed position, a screw threaded sleeve engaged-byand lengthwise movable on the tube, a pinion or sprocket havlngfrictional engagement with the screw threaded sleeve and carriedlengthwise thereby to engagement with the tube to rotate and set thelatter, and a stop pawl for arresting the rotation of the screw threadedsleeve to allow the rotation of the tube to move the sleeve withsprocket free from the tube and arrest its rotation.

3. In a machine of the class described a suction tube adapted to berotatively set into open and closed position, a screw threaded sleeveengaged by the tube and movable along the same, a shoulder or collar onthe tube, a pinion or s rocket in frictional engagement with the s eeveand moved thereby to engage the collar to rotate the a tube, and astoppawl to arrest the rotation 15 of the sleeve for the rotation of thetube to longitudinally move the sleeve with the sprocket clear of theshoulder.

In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set my hand in the witnesses. I

' JOSEPH HREN.

Witnesses:

CHRISTIAN ALMSTAEDT,

W. C. HAUFF.

presence oftwo subscribing 20

